Basketball Wives L.A. – Episode 4 – Here Comes The Bride

Jackie and Doug’s wedding is like the sun, and all the other plot points are like the planets that orbit around it this week. While all the ladies seem to show off their personal or professional sides this week, it all comes down to Jackie’s big day (it’s the 16th — no wait, the 19th big day of her life, since we now know she was married three times before she finally found Doug), and the drama that led us to it.

When Jackie tells Gloria and Imanithat she’s invited Draya to the wedding, you can see that Imani’s surprised.
But this is Jackie’s day and Jackie’s call, so it’s just up to Draya whether or not she accepts the invitation. The drama between Imani and Draya stays to a minimum and it looks like their heart-to-heart from last week is still between them.

While Jackie is trying to move forward and keep things positive with Draya,Malaysia does the same thing with the other women as well. She really went out of her way this week to mend some fences, huh?

Malaysia and Imani went out for gelato to get to know one another, and despite Imani’s early judgment that Malaysia’s heels and big ole Louis bag and dress weren’t quite gelato-getting attire, she comes around.
After talking about their lives and Imani discussing her background a little bit more, they’re like BFFs. “We really had a chance to bond. I really got a chance to see that she’s a good person,” Malaysia says.

“I ended up walking away with a whole new respect for her,” Imani said. So it looks like Malaysia’s yawns and looks of boredom back at the Pink Taco when they all met really were due to exhaustion and not an L.A. superiority complex after all. One relationship down, one to go.

Draya is in her work element this week, as she’s doing a magazine cover shoot in her underwear, and she invites Malaysia to come see her in action.
Malaysia is still wary of Draya after attending her party where Draya got a little forward with her. “All I remember is her asking to see my woo-hoo, and I don’t know her yet,” says Malaysia, as if a glimpse at your friend’s vagina is something that comes with time spent getting to know one another. But after watching Draya model,
she actually earns a new respect for her. Draya also learns that Malaysia used to do music videos (like this one), so they find some common ground and realize maybe they aren’t so different after all. Looks like those Head and Shoulders commercials were wrong, and you DO get a second chance to make a first impression after all, especially when you share a similar, booty-shaking past.

Unfortunately, their love-fest is marred by the fact that Malaysia spilled the beans that Jackie was asking the other girls whether or not she should invite Draya to her wedding. It all seemed so innocent, you know? Malaysia seemed like she was just trying to help! But after Draya learned that she was being talked about and her wedding invite was being debated, she didn’t appreciate that. “It’s a test: Does Draya meet these certain criteria with these girls?” Draya says, and Draya doesn’t have time for all the judging.

We get to see another side of Gloria this week when she brings us along to a basketball practice, now that she’s the coach of a high school team.
She jokes that Matt calls her the female Bobby Knight, and it’s true, I can totally see Brian Dennehy playing her in the movie version of her life. (J/K Gloria!) But she is really freaking tough on her team, for sure, forcing them to do sprints and not sit down when they get a drink of water. It is, in fact, my nightmare.

In some other news, Imani is sad to be single, and we’ll see more on this next week. But her kids are really cute!

Suzie and Gloria get drinks (welcome to L.A., Suzie! We’ve missed you!)
and compare notes on L.A. and Miami. Suzie was in town for her brother’s suuuper-boring college graduation, but she’s thrilled to sneak away for a beverage with Gloria. Gloria gives her the lowdown on all the girls in the L.A. clique, and when Suzie asks her if she missed Miami, the answer is predictable but still fun to hear anyway.
“Yeaaaah, NO. Not so much. I love talking to you and I’m glad that we’re still friends and keep in touch, but everybody else can kind of, you know, f— them. I’m over it.”

Jackie’s mother’s health is getting worse and sadly, Jackie tells her kids that her mother won’t be able to make it and tears up at the thought that her mother won’t be at her wedding.
Dougie Jr., a.k.a. best hair in the game, volunteers to stay behind and Skype his grandmother in so she can still be maid of honor. In this family moment, it’s hard not to think that this is one close, adorable, tight-knit group.

When they all finally get to Las Vegas for the wedding, the emotions are still running high. As Jackie prepares, she tells Gloria that she invited Draya and yet Draya is nowhere to be found. Where could she be?
Getting waxed of course! Where else does one go when they COULD be at a wedding?
Drays chose to spend the day getting her bikini line abused in front of her non-prune friends (prunes? prudes? whatever!), and I have to ask, since when do waxing salons allow an audience?
Draya doesn’t feel bad about skipping the wedding though, she says she felt like the invite wasn’t really that sincere anyway. “It was kind of like a distant ‘if you want to come you can come’ kind of thing,” she says.

“Is she at a club, is she somewhere strippin’, is she in a bed somewhere and had too many to drink with five guys with her? Where the hell is this girl at that she would miss something so special?” Jackie asks when she realizes one of her wedding guests has not shown up. I cringe thinking what Jackie will do now that she knows the truth, that Draya was getting her lady parts stripped bare while Jackie and Doug professed their love for each other.

And speaking of that, there wasn’t

a
dry
eye
in the
house.

But next week, we’re pretty sure Draya’s going to be nervous when she faces the wrath of Mrs. Doug Christie (to the sixteenth power.)